Improvement in removing hair from hides and skins



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIOE.

GREAT BRITAIN.

IMPROVEMENT IN REMOVING HAIR FROM HIDES AND SKINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,927, dated October 8, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM ANDERSON,

of Inverkeithin g, near Edinburg, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, have invented certain Improvements in Treating Skins or Hides, of which the following is a specification:

Hithertoit has been the practice to employ lime for removing the hair and cleaning the pores, but according tothis invention charcoal is employed either as a substitute for lime, or the skins or hides may be at first partly treated with lime, as heretofore, and finally treated with charcoal. The carbonaceous matter employed may be either animal, Vegetable, or mineral charcoal, either in a powdered or compact state, which may be either laid over or upon the skins or hides, or the skins or hides may be immersed in water containing the charcoal in suspension. The results of this treatment are that the hairs are loosened, the pores of the skins or hides purified, and the putrescent,

matter, grease, and other impurities removed.

In order to accelerate the process hereinbefore described heat may be applied to the tanks wherein it is conducted.

The most advantageous method of carrying this invention into eflect may be stated as follows :1 The skins or hides are put into water of 60 Fahrenheit, with powdered wood charcoal sufticient to give it the consistency of cream. The skins or hides are taken out of and put back into the same liquid each day until the hairs are sufficien tly loose to be removed easily, care being taken to stir the charcoahpowder which may have subsided in the intervals of removal, so as far as possible to keep it in suspension. The skins or hides are afterward washed,fleshed, and scudded,as in the ordinary method, when they are ready for tanning without any other. treatment. The charcoal-powder is, from time to time, revivified by drying it in thin layers in the sun or in a current of air.

In order to render flat and soft, and remove lime and other impurities from skins or hides, which may have been treated with lime for the purpose of removing the hairs, the process hereinbefore stated may be applied.

What I claim as my invention is The process of treating skins or hides by removing the hair therefrom and cleaning the pores, substantially as described.

WILLIAM ANDERSON.

Witnesses:

JOHN GRANT,

Of Iacerkeithing, Banker. JOHN ANGUS,

Of Inverkez'thing, Clerk. 

